


a bookshelf’s journey

by iamyourmagician



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Love at First Sight, Multi, crackfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:13:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22587694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamyourmagician/pseuds/iamyourmagician
Summary: for one hundred years, bookshelf had been witness to disaster. link and sidon give bookshelf a breath of fresh air.(a crackfic i wrote for pointcrow, a super cool twitch streamer/youtuber.)
Relationships: Link/Prince Sidon, bookshelf/prince sidon, link/bookshelf, link/prince sidon/bookshelf
Comments: 63
Kudos: 276





	a bookshelf’s journey

**Author's Note:**

> hello! it’s aster and i’m so sorry that i haven’t written anything in a few months i’ve been completely devoid of inspiration
> 
> until now.
> 
> a streamer i’ve been watching recently (pointcrow!) made a video called “marrying sidon and a bookshelf to create hyrule’s first car” (link: https://youtu.be/1RLLlfbHQmU ) and that video inspired me to write this. i hate to say it but i’ve never had so much fun writing a fic before jskdjskd
> 
> also! bookshelf has no gender in my eyes so we’re going to use sexy sexy they/them pronouns when referring to them thank u

for one century, bookshelf had watched hyrule castle crumble.

calamity ganon’s merciless wrath echoed through this lonely library. they had watched as the timeless beauty had been broken to pieces, scattered carelessly across the tiled floor. they had watched as the agile lizalfos had stormed in, wreaking havoc on this garden of knowledge. and bookshelf had stayed still, making themselves heavy, unmoving for one hundred years.

they remembered the days of light, when the beautiful princess zelda spent every waking hour here, studying tirelessly to awaken the powers within her. and they remembered how all of that effort had done her so little. she was certainly smart, diligent, and hardworking, but all of her strengths were overshadowed by her shortcomings.

her bossiness. her lack of healing power.

the whispers of castle town flew on the wind. even if they were uttered quietly, each word carried so much malice that they may as well have been shouted out.

so what came as a surprise to bookshelf was seeing everything suddenly change.

why?

because of the princess’s appointed knight: link.

at the beginning, bookshelf had a mixed opinion about him. after all, they never got the chance to see him. they only got to hear the things zelda said about him. about how he never spoke. about how zelda would spend years on one task and it would never work, and everything immediately worked out the second he stepped on the scene. he sounded amazing, but this was just arrogant. nobody does this stuff without trying to make a point. “i’m so amazing that i won’t even respond to your questions!” they wholeheartedly agreed with zelda’s frustrations.

but for the first time, they saw him walk into the room.

and immediately, they fell in love.

the silent knight had bright blue eyes. when he looked around the library, bookshelf was able to look straight into them for a moment, and they were like a clear ocean. radiant, bright. hiding nothing. he kept his blonde hair in a low ponytail. whatever didn’t make it there gently accented his face, creating a soft contrast to his expression. he wore the tunic of champions. and there was a sword sheathed on his back…

was that the sword of legends? the sword that seals the darkness? they were only further intrigued. what endeavors had led him to bear it? he must be someone amazing.

but alas, with no tongue or special power, they could not call out to him. so they allowed themselves to watch him as he moved, his steps silent, his expressions careful.

—

as the frightening threat of calamity ganon came ever closer, bookshelf saw the princess and her loyal knight less and less. they came to miss even the complaints escaping zelda’s lips. as annoying as bookshelf thought her constant venting was, now that it was gone, they wanted to hear it again.

however, they knew that this was something serious. this was no time to be lazing around in a library. bookshelf knew the tales of 10,000 years ago, where hyrule’s warriors had taken ganon down flawlessly. it was a dazzling legend that danced across the pages of countless books in this very library. everyone was working hard to make this equally effortless and clean. so they waited patiently for the trouble to pass. 

and they waited 100 years.

they watched as hyrule castle crumbled, they felt the horror of failure, they felt calamity ganon take over. at first it was horrific. in the days of light, the only source of malice was the whispers of castle town. and they were quiet and subtle, easy to overshadow. easy to prove incorrect. calamity ganon’s pure evil was something else entirely. it was something that required guardians, highly advanced and powerful machines. (and they ended up being taken over by ganon’s evil.) something that required four powerful and large divine beasts. (and the same thing had happened to them, too.) with all allies having been defeated and their power turning on them, hyrule’s champions fell, and hyrule castle fell along with them. the malevolence of ganon took over, and it filled the air, it was suffocating, it was disgusting. they hated every second.

and then? they felt princess zelda.

they felt a certain hope, drifting subtly but confidently between the pillars of wickedness. it was a breath of fresh air, floating softly through this disaster. it was the ray of light in the storm of relentless red.

and after a century of patient waiting, they heard zelda’s voice.

“link,” she said softly.

surpassing their expectations, her tone was not that of frustration. no, it was soft. it was that of love. _love._

…bookshelf wondered. as link was once zelda’s appointed knight, surely they were joined by the hip, regardless of whether they wanted to be or not. but after spending so much time with someone, you can’t help but open up to them at least somewhat. had the knight softened her? had those ocean eyes gently opened up her heart? had she realized his gentleness, his rough beauty?

compared to the dullness of the last one hundred years, the days that followed were full of excitement. whereas zelda’s presence had been a numbing peacefulness that was always there, hearing her call out to link and advise him on his journey was something special. it wasn’t something they could ignore at all, and they loved it. rather than being upset that the experiments she had worked so hard on worked solely for him, she took advantage of that fact, swallowing her pride and accepting his kindness and strength. when he backflipped off of towers and somehow survived, bookshelf could feel the princess facepalming, but laughing at the way he was magically saved. and when he finally seemed to know what he was doing, she called out to him much less.

regardless, bookshelf was no longer numb to princess zelda. while her power seemed to drift around the castle, it seemed somehow stronger now. she had been getting weaker for one hundred years, but with link’s resurrection, her energy made its gallant return.

somehow, bookshelf felt energized too.

they paid close attention to zelda. after all, she seemed to sense when link was near. it seemed as though link came close to the castle a few times before leaving and coming back.

bookshelf knew he was supposed to eventually come, storm hyrule castle, and defeat calamity ganon once and for all.

what bookshelf definitely wasn’t expecting, upon link’s arrival, was to be thrust out of their familiar spot by a sudden and extremely strong force.

at first, they didn’t even know who it was, but someone had thrown them face-first to the dusty library floor (nobody had dusted or cleaned it in 100 years… ick…!), that person’s footsteps echoing behind them. if that wasn’t a wake-up call, they didn’t know what was.

bookshelf felt zelda’s shock as they were lifted from the floor and somehow dragged out of the library. her presence faded more and more as they were brought to the docks, and immediately thrust in and out of the water countless times.

only a few times were they able to see who had taken them away. one hundred years later, still as rough and beautiful as before. it was the hero they had fallen in love with, link.

with him was a man with a fish-like body. he appeared to be more shark-like than anything else, save for his skin being red and white rather than gray. and he had legs for some reason.

ah. a zora man.

what was the legendary hero doing? hadn’t he opened his heart to princess zelda? had he lost his love for her, and fell for this zora prince…? link even made sure to maintain a very specific distance from him— not too far, as to scare him (he seemed to slowly fly away in sorrow. bookshelf made careful notes: zora can fly if you make them sad), but not too close, as to make him freeze in embarrassment. 

however, it seemed link was used to running. he aligned his pace to the zora man, but it meant he had to move slowly.

…wherever they were going, it would certainly be a long journey.

—

while bookshelf had left the castle with lots of knowledge (princess zelda loved to mutter to herself as she studied), they certainly never had even imagined how everything they had learned about actually came into practice.

for example, guardians. bookshelf knew that they were strong and frightening, but when the three of them actually encountered one, both link and sidon’s faces twisted in fear, and link immediately took out his shield to protect them both. (his flawless parries were incredible. bookshelf almost wished to encounter another frightening guardian, just to see him do it again.)

there was also… physics in general. things like gravity didn’t seem to be very consistent. whereas link was consistently affected by it, the zora man (bookshelf found out he was a _prince_ named _sidon_ ) was not.

bookshelf found themselves somewhat confused by prince sidon’s nature. the zora race relied heavily on the sea, and even seemed to draw strength from it. this much was evident by sidon’s varying speeds and strengths. when he sped through the rivers of hyrule, he could destroy any ice block that stood in his way. (while this proved more bothersome than helpful, bookshelf found it cute seeing him try so hard. it reminded them of the hardworking princess zelda.) however on land, he seemed very limited, floating through the air very slowly.

…he had legs, didn’t he? and he had no wings.

bookshelf found themselves only analyzing him closer.

another strange physics thing— relativity. whenever link encountered a monster, he always performed a backflip, and it seemed like time slowed down. and by the time everything had returned to normal, bookshelf felt dizzy, and link’s enemies fell to the ground.

after awhile, link seemed to get tired of using his sword to knock out the enemies, and he used the power of magnesis from the sheikah slate to move bookshelf around, knocking them into the bokoblins. while bookshelf usually loved to share their knowledge with the world, right now, they wished for nothing but to stand as link’s shield. and after a moment of being swung around like a dog on a leash, link lifted them high into the air.

they saw the pastures of hyrule. the rivers, the towers glowing in orange and blue. they saw a vast sky, clouds sailing across it effortlessly like an ocean of glass. and they saw, far in the distance: hyrule castle, their old home.

even from here, they could see how it was infested with guardians in many forms. the ones that crawled around like spiders in their web of malevolence. the ones that stayed still, eyes constantly on you. the ones that tore through the sky, a malicious searchlight that spun around and around hyrule castle, a single target in mind. the ones that raised up their heads, just to see you skitter away in fear. 

they had spent one hundred years surrounded by those cursed things. they had been numbed to their evil. but even then… this felt so much better. the air was fresh, the sky was bright blue. they found themselves wishing that they wouldn’t have to go back. that they could stay on this slow but incredible journey with link and prince sidon forever.

…with prince sidon?

…

all this time, they had been focusing so heavily on link. he was the champion of hyrule, the one who once bore the sword that seals the darkness. he was the one who had brought them out of that dusty library and showed them the sun.

but sidon was there too, wasn’t he?

as link slowly brought them down to the ground (this felt like it was happening in slow motion too. relativity is a strange thing…), they were swept off of their feet by the prince they had been daydreaming of.

…and then thrown to the ground, landing on top of link.

if bookshelves could blush, they definitely would have. if bookshelves could scream, they absolutely would have. however, they could not. all they could do was stay flat on the ground as link crawled his way out from underneath them. and then— one more law of physics.

displacement.

they felt the ground moving beneath them. no, no, that’s wrong. the ground wasn’t the one moving. they were.

bookshelf had never had the chance to move on their own before. if they were moving, something had to be making them do it. despite that, they didn’t feel anything on them at all — not the force of the sheikah slate’s magnesis, not someone lifting them or pushing them.

link was laughing as he walked in front of the pair. where was prince sidon?

…they connected the dots.

sidon is a strange fish man. he’s a shark with legs that he doesn’t use, and gravity doesn’t apply to him. he magically starts floating when you go too far away from him. and he seemed to have a strange power to make ice blocks disappear whenever he so much as touched them.

somehow, was he the one behind them? was he the one pushing them? making them feel like they were moving forward on their own, even if they weren’t?

and finally, link stood on top of bookshelf. and the three of them moved forward.

it was no faster or slower than it was before. the beautiful scenery of hyrule passed by them at the same pace. they went past monsters slowly and quietly, link guiding them all the way. through night and day, through rain and through sun, the three traveled at 0.0005 mph.

if bookshelves could cry, bookshelf would have been bawling like a baby. for the first time, they were moving forward confidently. they were providing help to the ones they loved in a way that they never could have imagined before. they were someone new entirely.

that’s right. they were no longer just a bookshelf in a library that had been decaying for a century. they were half of hyrule’s first ever car.

it felt amazing. they wished it could continue forever. chest up, they continued forward.

—

good or bad, all things must come to an end.

it seemed as though they had reached their sparkling destination— a charming place called “tarrey town.”

bookshelf’s role as a car was now over, and they stood up tall in front of tarrey town’s goddess statue. even if she was a non-living thing, she seemed to smile upon the three warmly.

prince sidon in a dazzling white wedding dress, bookshelf in a charming black suit. and once more (the last time, i promise!), they wished that they could cry. they wished that they could shout or yell. they wished that they could express this feeling rising within them.

to top it off, they got to hear link speak.

“i shall now bring you to the procession,” he said formally.

his voice was wonderful… warmth echoed out of every syllable.

“as we come here today, we bring sidon and the bookshelf together in happily matrimony.”

…matrimony?

link turned to sidon. “sidon, do you take this bookshelf as your lawfully wedded item?”

and in sidon’s equally dazzling voice, bookshelf heard an “i do!”

they were… getting married…?

bookshelf had some limited knowledge on the hylian ritual of marriage. humans have short lives, so marriage is supposed to tie them together forever, as long as they live. even if death does them part, the strong feelings of connection would still be there…

and prince sidon had said yes.

on their journey, what had he been feeling? had he been doing his best to assist link in his journey? had he been smiling as he pushed bookshelf forward? had he been gazing at the beautiful scenery of hyrule for the first time?

…had he fallen in love with bookshelf?

“and bookshelf!” link cried. “do you take sidon as your lawfully wedded fish man?”

bookshelf wanted to cry. they wanted to scream. “i do!!!”

…

…they spoke.

they had managed it. for this one important moment. for this wedding that had come out of nowhere that brought them immeasurable joy… they had managed to speak.

and link declared, loudly, for all of tarrey town, and anyone surrounding it. he declared it to the world, to all of hyrule. to everyone. this was their moment, and nobody else’s.

“you may now kiss the bookshelf!”

and with that, bookshelf allowed link’s magnesis to take over them as they reached for sidon’s lips. 

did they make it? well.

…the thought’s what counts.

**Author's Note:**

> “happily matrimony” was entirely intentional that is not a mistake on my part that is what _crow_ said i am just quoting him. please appreciate his top tier grammar
> 
> thank you for reading!! i had a blast writing this and i’m glad you read all of it! if you’d like, leave a comment! i respond to pretty much everything i receive and i’d love to talk to y’all! (if you’re new to ao3 keep in mind you don’t have to make an acc!♡ i think the email is so you can be notified of my response.  
> join supreme leader crow’s discord!! i’m in there too, my nickname has “i wrote the bookshelf fic” in it so you can’t miss me lmao  
> also my twt is @iamyourmagician feel free to dm/follow me there!!


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